It sure feels good to be home. After passing the Sawdust Festival, as I drove through the canyon, I got that warm feeling in my stomach and my body relaxed. I had been traveling in Europe for the last three months, competing in seven WQS competitions.

I started out in France, then drove to Spain for two more, then on down to Portugal for another two. But in between the two events in Portugal, I had a month break. Luckily, I ended up meeting a couple of really cool families who were my hosts during the break.

It was amazing to live in another country for awhile and experience a foreign place. The food, the language, the land, and the people all felt new, a refreshing change and switch up of the routine. Portugal is an amazing place with amazing people and a unique lifestyle.

And let’s not forget the waves. Portugal has the best waves in all of Europe, as far as I am concerned, and all I did for that month was surf two to three times a day. There was every type of wave you can imagine: beach breaks, perfect point breaks, heavy slabs, whatever you wanted to ride you could find. Most of the time, no one else was in the water. So I got a lot of good practice in with some of my good friends that I traveled with on tour.

After the second event in Portugal, I hopped a plane to the Canary Islands for the two more events before returning to my beloved Laguna.

A lot has happened while I was away. My sister went off to college, school started, Halloween came and went, and the 2010 LBHS Surf Team season started.

The surf team has always been my favorite subject, but this year I pretty much missed the entire thing and wasn’t able to cover their competitions. I caught up with Coach Finn and to see how the season went:

RA: How has the team been doing so far?

CF: The team has been having some great individual performances but we’ve struggled to find success in all the divisions on the same morning.

RA: Which guys and girls have been surfing the best and contributing to the team?

CF: Taylor Pitz and Kris Williams have been doing really well in both long-board and short-board.

RA: How has everyone improved since last season?

CF: Rex Strombotne has shown a lot of improvement along with a new freshman, Cameron dePfyffer.

RA: How have the practices been going?

CF: We got some really fun waves a few weeks back for practice at Thalia. The team always gets stoked to have fun waves at their home break.

RA: Take me through a practice day.

CF: Typically we run challenge heats, and if it is flat we crosstrain by running, swimming, and paddling.

RA: What school has the stiffest competition?

CF: San Clemente is the strongest team in our league. They are also state champs.

RA: What does the rest of the year look like?

CF: We just finished up our regular season this morning at Creek. Next week we have League individual finals at Uppers.

Well there you have it, a quick run down of the 2010 LBHS Surf Team season. Hope all of you have been having a great start to the holiday season. Luckily we are getting some waves this week, get out there and enjoy yourself.